"As the iPad is currently the ‘class leader’ in education, there are many educators who have found themselves with an iPad to ‘see what it can do?’ The challenge is to demonstrate enhanced learning, so here are ten suggestions that may help:"

So if you say that you care less about whether kids are academically gifted and more about whether they sit with the lonely kid in the cafeteria, then be the teacher who welcomes the newbie to the staff room - the supply teacher, the itinerant, the new custodian, the secretary who is just here for a day, the high school, college or university student on placement. As Gandhi said, "Be the change you want to see in the world."

As a long time observer of the Canadian province of Ontario, I am given hope by news that Ontario Premier, Kathleen Wynne, has acknowledged the need to improve the maths curriculum. Ontario's maths results in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) have been declining for some time now. My hypothesis is that this decline…

Paul's insight:

"There are a few prominent Canadian voices on Twitter but, as far as I can tell, they hold no positions of authority in Canadian education and will be easily marginalised as eccentric, old-fashioned conservatives." A good assessment of this situation in Ontario when it comes to math.

I've got to give a shoutout to Lisa Noble who dragged out this post from my past. The post comes from Labour Day, 2012 and was titled "Plan Now for a Year of Success". Looking back, wow, that was five years ago, it's still worth a read and so I'm reblogging it today as a…

It's time to get excited as we take a weekly tour around the province and check out the great things from the blogs of Ontario Educators. There's a great deal of inspiration to help with getting prepared for a return to the classroom next week. Superman (It’s Not Easy To Be Me) This is a…

For the first time in four years, I am without a makerspace. My new school’s library is beautiful and huge and has a school culture that is just ripe for making. Even though it was tempting, I decided not to change it up and create a makerspace over the summer. I want to be sure that the library program, including a new makerspace, is responsive to the needs of the school and its culture. Therefore, I plan on spending at least the first-semester making plans for how this space will work. It will likely be very different from my previous space, but I’m excited to see what forms.

Making plans for a new makerspace can be daunting, so I’ve gathered together some tips to help get started:

Be Internet Awesome is a multifaceted program that includes a fun and free web-based game called Interland and an educational curriculum to teach kids how to be safe and responsible explorers of the online world.

Interland is an adventure-packed online game that makes learning about digital safety and citizenship interactive and fun—just like the Internet itself. Here, kids will help their fellow Internauts combat badly behaved hackers, phishers, oversharers, and bullies by practicing the skills they need to be good digital citizens.

Some feel they've been treated unfairly, and that teachers have not only a right but a professional responsibility to express their opinion on education, and this right and responsibility is being suppressed.

Paul's insight:

A good follow-up to the discussion we had on the use of SM in education last week

Greg Ashman seems to be one of the few people writing in opposition to the ongoing disaster that is math instruction in Ontario. This week, he wrote another great article on what is not working with math in Ontario - Can Ontario fix its math curriculum. Great article and really interesting comments. I agree that…

Paul's insight:

Comments on good article on Ontario's Math curriculum - still ways to go before the curriculum improves.

Motivate students to revise their writing through self-publishing fiction, creating podcasts and YouTube videos, writing blogs, corresponding with others, and anything else for an authentic audience.

Paul's insight:

The importance of audience "It should come as no surprise, then, that students care more about writing, revising, editing, proofreading, and perfecting their compositions when given a real-world audience."

Classroom management is a fundamental element of a strong learning environment, but it has been a struggle at MLK Middle School. Principal Michael Essien is

Paul's insight:

'Listen to the first episode of the MindShift podcast’s new season, “A Whole School Approach to Behavior Issues,” to learn how Essien and his staff are leveraging the relationship building expertise of support staff to support teachers in the classroom. '

I meet a lot of new teachers from a range of Australian universities. When I talk to them, they are full of enthusiasm for inquiry learning, project-based learning and other progressive teaching methods. When I ask them about explicit teaching, they look at me strangely and sometimes I have to clarify what I mean. I…

Paul's insight:

"It’s worth considering why we are in this situation. Why do bad ideas persist and even flourish in the field of education when they would have been superseded in medicine or engineering?"

I fear that the Ontario government’s math strategy is to double down on the very techniques that have caused scores to decline in the first place

Paul's insight:

"Contrary to what parents are often told, discovery techniques are not backed up by solid research evidence. In fact, research evidence strongly favours explicit instruction by a teacher, followed by student practice, over discovery-based instruction for nurturing better understanding and strong mathematics problem solvers."

It's always a good week when Ontario Educators are blogging. This past week was no different; here's some of what I caught. Here's the toolbar in my browser so I'm ready to go.... Response to: Five Ways to Damage a Good School Only five? Paul McGuire focuses in on a post from another blogger and…

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